Professor Jade Nymillia
Academic and Professional Career Jade’s life has revolved around one thing- magical artifacts. From an early age she was surrounded by the history, lore, and collection of these exotic items. Her father, a bookish wizard whose research skills were legendary, complimented her mother, an impulsive adventurous ‘do first plan later’ witch. World renown for their archeological finds, her dad planned the missions and designed the safety features needed to study the often dangerous objects, and her mom did the actual collection and retrieval. Busy with both government contract work as well as their own free lance pursuits, Jade was involved with much of their endeavors. Although she greatly preferred her dad’s research activities, for she had developed a great love for ancient runes in particular, Jade was skilled enough to help her mom track down artifacts in the field. She even went on several archeological expeditions alone, finding a magical ring on her first one. The ring worked as a wand but seemed particularly attuned to the study of artifacts and Jade gifted it to her mother as a replacement for her mother’s recently broken wand. Her parents eventually realized their relationship had been more professional than romantic, and got an amicable divorce. Her father remarried a friend of his ex-wife’s and Jade has an extremely close relationship with her step mom. Her dad then retired and Jade, in order to help her mom, decided to take up his position on the team, researching and studying the artifacts they were hired to find. Although he was at first hesitant to endorse this new team, Jade promised to look after her mom, and he decided to acquiesce to their wishes. One particularly tough case involved an artifact known as the Forgotten Crystal. Years had gone by since they received the case and her dad had made no significant progress in tracking its location, but Jade soon did, being exceptionally proud of herself for solving a case that her dad, the foremost expert in the field, had failed to solve. Finding the crystal, even with its general location known, was not easy, but Jade and her mom eventually retrieved it. Then the fun began, or so Jade thought. The investigation into what these magical items actually did always intrigued her. However, the experimentation with this particular object would go terribly wrong. As they attempted to unlock its secret they accidentally triggered the crystal causing it to glow. Suddenly, her mom started casting spells in all directions as if attempting to fight off some unseen force. Jade, attempting to stop her mother, called to her, but the eyes of her mom no longer held the warmth she was accustomed to seeing and her mother attacked Jade viciously. Jade defended herself but the strength and power her mom now wielded was far more than Jade anticipated, and she became corned, trapped by her own mother. As her mother raised her ring to deliver the final blow, jade felt the crushing weight of something trying desperately to get into her mind. Jade quickly cast a mental defensive spell on her own mind, which mitigated the overwhelming effects of the crystal. But now Jade had a glimpse into the true cause of her mother’s behavior and she rapidly formulated a plan. Casting a quick incantation to briefly distract the monster inside her mother, she rushed to the one object in the room she knew would help, an Ice Fae pendant. Holding the pendant toward the creature she utter a powerful incantation, and the creature howled, but soon her mom dropped unconscious to the floor. Using chronomancy, Jade quickly froze time around her mom’s body. Jade collapsed to the floor, weeping, overwhelmed with the knowledge of what she had just done, for her mother’s soul was now trapped inside the pendant, and Jade’s lifelong quest to free her had begun. Concerned that the Ministry would take the crystal from her, and with it any hopes of her mom’s safe return, she lied about the nature of the incident, and her mom’s body was taken to St Mungos hospital. Years passed, and Jade worked ceaselessly to find an answer, but she was no longer able to support herself, having not been on an archaeological excursion since the incident. She took a part time teaching position at Hogwarts, not only to gain some financial stability but also hoping the resources there would help her save her mom. Eventually, she realized the ring she had given her mom could aid her tremendously in the study of the crystal. On her next visit to St Mungos she gently removed the ring from her mother’s frozen body, vowing once again to do whatever was necessary to free her mother. But the crystal was slowly beginning to have an effect on Jade. During her fight with her mother she had received terrible facial scars that the Healers at St Mungos could not remove. Now, even stranger things were occurring. A mark appeared on her harm, and two of her top teeth began to elongate. The tattoo she hid using long sleeves, and the teeth she blamed on ancient artifact studies, which actually wasn’t far from the truth. There were other effects as well. Starting in her dreams, but eventually occurring while awake, she would hear her mother’s voice saying things her mother would never say- hateful, spiteful things. Everything her ‘mom’ told her seemed tailored to target her negative emotions, and Jade began a desperate struggle to fight off an ever increasing amount of anxiety and depression. Even worse, she had cut off almost all ties to her friends and even rarely spoke to her father and step mother. Every second she spent on anything other than saving her mother was fraught with guilt, so she simply stopped having any kind social life at all. As her mental battle worsened, she began having vivid scenes play out in her head- scenes of her own destruction, of her failure to protect her mom, scenes of her father’s disappointment, scenes of how much better her life would be if she simply stop fighting the depression and simply succumbed to it. At first, these things began as subtle, almost forgotten nightmares, but soon they became far more real and even happened during the day. She struggled to cope mentally, but Jade was losing the fight. Unfortunately her situation would worsen, and she started losing control of her own body. It always happened when her depression, anxiety, and visions were at their worst, and it was a terrifying experience, for she had to fight for control using every ounce of her willpower. With all this happening, and despite years of research, she still had no idea what the crystal was or what it was doing. Unbeknownst to her, the forgotten crystal actually acted as a conduit into another realm. Her realm, realm 47, was a typical life bearing realm, but the realm connected to the crystal was a far darker place, full of arcane magic and ancient evil, and that evil wished to come through. Seeding the multiverse with these crystal conduits, the creatures hoped the crystals would be activated by the unwitting efforts of the inhabitants in these realms. Once activated, a being from this dark region would infect and enslave the mind of the person who activated it, forcing them to kill everyone else present, and then using their bodies to perform a dark ritual, permanently connecting the two realms, allowing them to invade and feed off the energy while utterly destroying that universe. Jade has no idea how dire her situation really is, and the lives of not only her loved ones but of everyone in her entire universe are at stake. Knowing this, she would undoubted seek help, but she is ignorant of the dire implications of her failing efforts as she still clings to the hope of saving her mother, while an unspeakable evil slowly corrupts her mind.